186 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
years. These tendencies in yield and acreage both bear 
the mark of the influence of more intensive farming, and 
are strongly indicative of the fact that it was about the 
year 1895 that this influence began to be experienced. 
Fourthly, according to Dr. Mcllraith, the rate of dis- 
count, a convenient measure of the rate of interest, had 
fallen in 1895 to about 5 per cent., and has remained at a 
figure between 5 per cent. and 6 per cent, until recently. 
It is obvious that this fall in the rate of interest would 
have considerable influence on the means whereby 
farmers might obtain sufficient capital to pursue inten- 
sive methods of cultivation, which of necessity involves 
not merely more labour, but also more capital. Finally, 
by this time the Government was promoting, by its system 
of taxation for social ends, and by its activity in pur- 
chasing large estates, an intensive method of cultivation. 
Furthermore, as internal development was progressing, 
the means of transportation by railway were becoming 
more prevalent; and the country, now quite recovered 
from the gloom of the ‘‘eighties,’’ was pushing on the 
construction of roads and bridges, and making rapid 
progress in general development. It was circumstances 
such as these which favoured the initiation of a new 
system of agricultural and pastoral farming in New 
Zealand, the development of which will occupy our 
attention in the succeeding pages of this chapter. 
3. Land. 
(a) Definition of Region Under Investigation. —In 
considering the question of the supplies of land available 
for wheat production in New Zealand, it is necessary for 
all practical purposes to confine our attention to Canter- 
bury and North Otago as being the most suitable and 
probable areas for production. Since the year 1868, when 
regular annual statistics of crop and acreage for New 
Zealand were first available, only a very small portion of 
